When the CARIFTA Games are held at the Truman Bodden Sports Complex over the Easter weekend, it will mark a long history of Cayman’s involvement in the region’s premiere junior athletics tournament.

The annual CARIFTA Games started in 1972 and Cayman’s first team competed seven years later in Kingston, Jamaica.

Cayman did well, producing four finalists in David Hooker, Maxwell Wilson, Trevor Gillings and Teresa Bodden.

The following year in Bermuda none of the five Caymanian competitors were able to reach finals but by the following year there was more success in the Bahamas.

Gillings got to a final and so did Sandra Wellington.

In 1982 back in Jamaica, Cayman got their first medals. Wellington secured bronze in the Under-17 girls’ 800 metres and Tabitha Parchment took silver in the U17 girls’ 1500m.

 In 1983 in Martinique Adam Llewellyn proudly took gold for Cayman in the U17 boys’ discus. He also took bronze in the shot put.

The next year in the Bahamas, Edward Manderson won bronze for Cayman in the boys’ U17 long jump. In 1985 in Barbados, Manderson got gold in the U20 long jump and Herfa Ebanks (women’s 3,000m Open) and Paul Hurlston (men’s U20 javelin) got silvers.

In Guadeloupe in 1986 Manderson secured silver in the men’s U20 triple jump and Llewellyn also grabbed silver in the U20 discus.

The best medal haul to date came in Trinidad in 1987 when the young Kareem Streete-Thompson took gold in the boys’ U17 long jump and Edward Manderson also captured gold in the U20 long and triple jumps. Ryan Haylock reached silver in the U17 javelin.

In Kingston, Jamaica in 1988 Streete-Thompson, in the U17s, got gold this time in the long jump.

Racquel Morrison also grabbed gold in the girls’ U17 high jump.

CARIFTA silver medals came for Vanda Powery in the girls’ U17 discus and Peterkin Berry competing in the U17 boys’ javelin.

Barbados was next with Streete-Thompson taking gold in his final year in the U17 in the long jump and silver in the 100m.

Racquel Morrison got bronze in the U17 long jump and Haylock got the same in the U20 discus.

Streete-Thompson leap was the CARIFTA U17 record which still stands today. His overall performances won the Austin Sealey award as the best athlete at the championships. All the Cayman athletes in the team were finalists that year.

In Jamaica in 1990, Cayman had their best medal haul up till then, with three golds. Streete-Thompson became the first repeat winner of the Austin Sealey award by winning the U20 long jump, again with a record that still stands.

Haylock was equally superb, winning two golds in the discus and javelin.

Dominic Powell went to Trinidad in 1991 and captured gold in the boys’ U17 javelin and took silver in the discus.

Jeffrey Goddard mined bronze in the boys’ U17 javelin.

In the Bahamas in 1992, Susan Borden got bronze in the girls’ U17 javelin and Powell won bronzes in javelin and discus at U17 level. Emerging track queen Cydonie Mothersill made the finals of the girls’ U17 200m.

In Martinique in 1993, Cayman failed to medal for the first time since 1981 but by the following year in Barbados they were in full flow again. Mothersill won gold in the U17 100m and silver in the 200m.

Cayman hosted the CARIFTA Games in 1995 and won four bronzes. Mothersill competing in the U20s got hers in the sprints with Dominic Powell (U20 shot put) and Elroy Bryan (boys’ U17 shot put) securing the others.

Back to Jamaica in 1996 and Cydonie stole the show, winning the U20 sprints and getting the Austin Sealey award to boot.

Mothersill took 200m gold again at the 1997 Barbados CARIFTAs.

David Hamil, now a PE teacher and track coach, was Cayman’s only medallist, with a bronze in the U17 boys’ 200m at the 1998 Games in Trinidad. Hamil is 26 now and is making a comeback as a sprinter hoping to get to the Commonwealth Games in India.

The following CARIFTAs, in Martinique, Cayman got a bumper haul with five bronzes. They were won by Schawanah McCarthy in the U17 girls’ 100m hurdles, Michael Letterlough (boys’ U17 discus) and Robert Ibeh getting three in the 100m, 100m hurdles and long jump.

Letterlough took silver at the 2000 Games in Grenada, the only Cayman medallist. So too was Omar Wright in 2001 in Barbados when he took silver in the boys’ U17 high jump.

Letterlough returned to the team in 2002 in Barbados, taking bronze in the U20 discus.

Trinidad hosted the 2003 Games but Cayman did not medal.

At the next Games, Usain Bolt established a junior world record in the U20 boys’ 200m in Bermuda.

Three silvers were earned by Cayman; Ronald Forbes in the U20 400m hurdles, Omar Wright in the U20 high jump and Carl Morgan in the men’s U20 javelin.

After an eight year drought, Cayman got CARIFTA gold again through Carl’s twin brother Carlos who won the U20 javelin in Tobago in 2005.

Carl Morgan took bronze in the U20 long jump and Richard Ibeh, Robert’s brother, got silver in the U17 boys’ discus.

Alexandra Terry went to Martinique in 2006 and threw discus silver in the girls’ U17 division, Cayman’s only medal.

Three silvers were captured in 2007 in the Turks and Caicos Islands. Kemar Hyman got one in the U20 men’s 200m, Shane Evans in the U20 men’s shot put and Terry again in the discus.

When CARIFTA went to St Kitts the following year, Travis Webb was the sole Cayman hero, bringing home a bronze in the boys’ U17 high jump.

Chantelle Morrison earned bronze last year in St Lucia in the girls’ U17 100m behind two exceptionally swift Jamaicans. Morrison is favourite for the title this year as the Jamaicans have moved up an age group. It would be fitting for her to do it on home soil.

Cayman only had confirmation that they would host these Games a few months ago when the US Virgin Islands withdrew staging the 2010 tournament.

So between the athletics association president, Rayle Roberts, himself a former CARIFTA competitor, Delroy Murray, his predecessor and the likes of Evelyn Rockett, Wason Harcourt and Elizabeth Ibeh, they are frantically preparing with main coaches Kenrick Williams and Tyrone Yen for the event from 3-5 April.

Morrison, Terry, Webb and Ashleigh Nalty are the most experienced, but plenty of other young hopefuls will be vying to make a name for themselves too.